𝕎𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕎𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕖 - Ⓓ Ⓝ Ⓕ

~44~

Dream was sitting anxiously on the floor of Sapnap's room, George sitting beside him with a heavy head on his shoulder. They had been watching Patches carefully for an hour now, trying to decipher if everything was okay with the pregnant cat, but so far, there were still no little kittens.

They weren't sure when she was supposed to give birth after starting labour, or even how long she had been in labour for, so they were really out of their depth. Hell, they didn't even know how many kittens there would be, but that didn't matter to Dream or George. They just wanted Patches and her babies to be okay.

"She knows what she needs to do, right?" George asked, brown eyes flashing up to meet Dream's. "With natural instincts and all?"

Dream wasn't too sure about that himself, but he was pretty confident that all animals had some kind of maternal instinct, but was mostly worried about what they would do if something went wrong. "I'm sure she knows what to do. We just have to make sure that she's comfortable and safe."

"What about the kittens?" George's head left his shoulder, his gaze suddenly nervous and burning into Dream's. "We have no heating and they'll be cold. Isn't that dangerous – with hypothermia and the cold temperatures?"

"Yeah, you're right about that," Dream agreed. "But Patches would cuddle with them and use her body heat to keep them warm, and if worse comes to worse, we could bundle them and keep them under our clothes to help warm them, but I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Yeah, George," Karl called out from where he was lying on the bed with Sapnap, his injured leg propped up on a pillow. Both George and Dream looked towards the other brunette, who only flashed them a confident smile. "It'll all work out, don't worry. Patches knows what's best for her and her kittens. We just need to make sure she has enough energy for the birth and give her water. It's going to be hard on her."

After acknowledging Karl's knowledge and addition to their conversation, they fell silent for a while, not knowing what else to say. Dream had reached forwards to Patches and gently ran his fingers against her fur on her side, patting her soothingly with a small smile on his face. George watched him quietly, his own fingers twitching as he took in Dream's soft grin, and a small part of himself wondered if it was safe to pet a cat in labour. Despite not knowing if it was okay to do so, he also wanted to pat Patches, but he was too scared of accidentally hurting her and her kittens if his touch made Patches stressed.

Dream looked back at George for a second when he noticed the other was watching him, and offered a brighter smile to the brunette, swiftly taking his hand in his. "Do you wanna pat her?"

George mimicked his smile with a shy nod, a warmth spreading throughout his chest. Dream was ever the mind reader. "Is that okay?"

A soft chuckle escaped Dream's lips and his eyes glowed as he squeezed George's hand, bringing it forward. "Of course."

Hesitantly, George allowed Dream to guide his hand over Patches' smooth fur, but he refused to put any pressure on her, keeping his touch feather light. Patches meowed quietly at George proximity and rolled over a little, reaching her paws upwards to gently touch George's fingers. George wasn't sure if that meant she liked his presence, or if she wanted him gone.

Either way, George slowly retracted his hand, not wanting to alarm her. Patches probably didn't even understand that she was about to have kittens, let alone why her body was hurting and moving on its own. God, she must be so scared.

He slowly leaned away from her and turned to bury his face in Dream's chest, his hands weakly grabbing at the soft material of his shirt while Dream looked down at him in confusion. He slowly brought his arms around the smaller brunette, frowning slightly at George's sudden embrace, but he tried not to question George's bouts of shy affection, knowing that sometimes the older struggled with expressing his emotions and thoughts. Dream was used to his behaviour by now, but he still wished that George opened up more. Holding everything in is hard, and in some situations dangerous, and he didn't want George to go through what he did. He didn't want George to hurt.